Heretofore, phase array microwave radar has been provided wherein the energy from each emitter element is independently phase shifted so that the ratio of scan angle to beam spread is equal to the number of emitter elements in the array. Such agile beam scanning can also be provided for an optical phased array. However, with the exceedingly large number of emitting elements to be utilized in an optimum or desirable optical phased array, various problems arise due to the number of such emitting elements and the number of control elements required.
The most straight forward approach to steering the beam of a phased array is to introduce a linearly varying phase shift across the array.
Due to the unusually large number of emitter elements in an optical phased array, the standard approach to agile beam steering as found in phase array microwave radar becomes unworkable.